We are on our own

More and more evidence indicates that the universe is an accident without meaning and purpose. I exist. If anyone is reading this, you exist. We had parents. When we were small, our parents seemed "god-like to us in their knowledge and power, but as we grew older we realized that they were fallible human beings just as we are. As a species, in our early development of empiricism and science (an understanding that only goes back a few hundred years of our thousands of years of recorded history) it made some sense to regard ourselves as products of a "cosmic parent" we called "God."

Just as individuals we grew up and learned to take care of ourselves and try and master our destiny, as a species we are entering our "adulthood." Religion offered at least three answers to perplexing and agonizing dilemmas. First, we (at least on this planet) are the only animals that realize we are going to die. As evolution provides all animals with two imperatives: survive and reproduce out genes, the awareness of our own mortality makes our mind go TILT! "i AM NOT GOING TO DIE!" So we invented lies about living after physical death, either through reincarnation (Hinduism and Buddhism, etc.) or through a survival of the individual "soul." The utter lack of empirical evidence for any survival after

Yes, the world has already entered a post religious era.

In the United States and in many areas of the world, there is such a vast number of religions and such a great amount of people who follow no religion that there is already a post-religious era. Of course, with that is growing a spiritual awareness in some people that complements scientific discovery and can be very beneficial rather than constricting.

People Just Need Something To Beleive In

I to think that no matter how much we learn about the universe, people will always be religious. Even if we are able to travel to distant galaxies one day. I think that will just enhance people's religious views all that much more. Human beings just cannot comprehend the vastness and all the amazing things in the universe with out a god.